Among the prominent

Last week I had several road trips out from Mbale in different directions. As always, I scanned roadsides for any interesting birds and noticed some that can justly be called "prominent." On the edge of a wetland west of Soroti there were a pair of Abyssinian ground hornbills (Bucorvus abyssinicus). It had been a while since I saw any of these mainly black, turkey-sized birds that spend most of their time stalking around on the ground in bushed grasslands. Then yesterday, coming back from Kaderuna in Pallisa district, we passed a pair of grey crowned cranes (Balearica regulorum), Uganda's spectacular national bird, just outside Mbale town. It also seems like forever since I have seen any of these near Mbale. One comes across them more often around Eldoret in Kenya, and also in western parts of Uganda.

Mackinnon's or lesser grey?

Yesterday I caught sight of a shrike of a sort that I'd not seen in Mbale before. It was obviously either a type of fiscal or closely related to these fellows. Having seen Mackinnon's fiscal in Kakamega forest (Kenya), I assumed this was one of those. Checking my field guide, however, revealed that it may more likely have been a lesser grey shrike. I did not have binoculars handy, so was not able to observe the features that would distinguish one from the other. Since Mackinnon's is a resident where it occurs and the lesser grey a migrant, and since I've not come across these in Mbale before, and since it is the height of the season for palearctic migrants to be passing through...my guess is that this was probably a lesser grey. Which would be nice to be able to confirm, as I've never seen that species before at all. Maybe I'll come across another one before the end of migration.

Owls, etc.

Last week we got a pretty good look at a barn owl perched in a flamboyant (Poinciana) tree, across the road from the house where the children go to school. It was being mobbed (a bit half-heartedly) by some bulbuls and some other small birds, and putting up with it all right. When Nathanael spotted it and asked me what it was, we called several of the other kids and teachers to come have a look in the few minutes before school was to begin. The growing knot of observers under its roost eventually proved to much for comfort and it flew across into a nook under the eaves of a neighbor's house.

The other morning I was out jogging a bit earlier than usual (too dark to see potholes on the road, so maybe a bit ill-advised) and I heard a white-faced owl (some books list it as white-faced scops owl) calling across the way. These seem to be regular here in Mbale, at least during some parts of the year, but we don't get to see them all that often since we're seldom out at night and they tend not to move from their secluded roosts during the day.

As far as I've been able to tell from a dozen years in Mbale, our normally resident owls are Verreaux's/giant eagle owls (often noisy even in day time) that inhabit the mature African mahogany trees in this neighborhood; the pint-sized white-faced owls (an adolescent specimen of which we once kept for a while during its recuperation from a close encounter with a car); and barn owls. Other than these, we once in a while hear or much less often catch a glimpse of the medium-sized African wood owl (their duets are one of the especially interesting signature sounds of the night across much of Africa).

In other news, there was a paradise flycatcher in our yard the other day -- first time for me to see/hear one right here, even though they have turned up elsewhere in Mbale once in a great while.

The European bee-eaters are overhead several times a day now, heading for cooler climes. I also saw a flight of 100+ Abdim's storks flying NW early this morning, probably also on migration. And the other day I had a glimpse of a large falcon, either lanner or peregrine over the neighborhood road on which I was driving. Wish I'd had binocs handy and time to stop and gaze and nail down its ID.

First bee-eaters heading north

Yesterday, 21 March, I heard and saw my first flock of European bee-eaters since the southward migration season last year, flying overhead on their way back to more northerly climes. In a part of the world where we do not have the four clearly demarcated seasons of the temperate zones, these and other Palearctic migrants are a pleasant reminder that fall and spring are happening elsewhere.

Entebbe birds

Herewith a list of species that I encountered while in the vicinity of Entebbe town earlier this week (a "v" after a species name indicates hearing the bird's call but not actually seeing it).

This morning we've had a couple of western black-headed orioles around the yard, besides a convocation of black-and-white-casqued hornbills attracted to our fruiting musizi trees. There has been a flock of Ross' turacos in the neighborhood the past couple of weeks. And I heard a greater honeyguide calling a few hours ago, the first for some time.

1. African thrush
2. Marabou
3. Splendid glossy starling
4. Common bulbul
5. Red-chested cuckoo (v)
6. African fish eagle (v)
7. Palm-nut vulture
8. Crowned hornbill
9. Emerald cuckoo (male)
10. Hadada
11. Broad-billed roller
12. Grey-headed sparrow
13. Red-eyed dove
14. Black kite
15. Wahlberg's eagle
16. Pygmy kingfisher
17. Collared sunbird
18. Red-billed firefinch
19. White-rumped swift
20. Scarlet-chested sunbird
21. Yellow white-eye
22. Black-and-white shrike flycatcher
23. Grey woodpecker
24. Ross' turaco
25. Eastern grey plantain eater
26. Klaas' cuckoo (v)
27. Black-headed gonolek
28. Brown-headed tchagra
29. Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
30. Bronze mannikin
31. Black-and-white mannikin
32. Grey kestrel
33. Olive-bellied sunbird
34. Red-chested sunbird
35. Common (grey-backed) camaroptera
36. African mustache warbler
37. Vieillot's black weaver (female)
38. Black-headed weaver
39. Black-billed weaver
40. Speckled mousebird
41. Hooded vulture
42. Double-toothed barbet
43. Blue-spotted wood dove
44. Tambourine dove
45. Snowy-headed robin-chat (v -- mimicry)
46. White-browed robin-chat (v)
47. Yellow-rumped tinkerbird
48. Angola swallow
49. Tawny-flanked prinia
50. Northern black flycatcher
51. Northern puffback
52. Lizard buzzard
53. Black-and-white-casqued hornbill
54. Grey-cap warbler (v)
55. African green pigeon
56. Striped kingfisher (v)
57. Hamerkop
58. White-headed saw-wing
59. Ruepell's long-tailed starling
60. Great blue turaco
61. Harrier hawk
62. Little swift
63. Yellow-throated longclaw
64. Winding cisticola
65. Woodland kingfisher
66. Egyptian goose
67. African / European cuckoo (no binoculars handy, but the pair of cuckoos was one or the other of these)
68. Abdim's stork
69. Pink-backed pelican
70. Piapiac
71. Brown-throated (common) wattle-eye (v)
72. Grey-backed fiscal
73. African pied crow
74. Zitting cisticola
75. Cattle egret
76. Black-headed heron
77. Pied kingfisher
78. Northern brown-throated weaver
79. Little egret
80. Paradise flycatcher (v)
81. Yellow wagtail
82. Helmeted guineafowl
83. Mosque swallow
84. Osprey
85. Openbill
86. Barn swallow
87. Plain-backed pipit
88. African jacana
89. Two or three sandpiper spp.
90. African wattled plover
91. Long-toed lapwing
92. African yellow-billed duck
93. Long-tailed cormorant
94. Lesser striped swallow
95. Yellow-throated greenbul

Mt Elgon National Park

Last week I had the privilege of hiking for two days in Mt Elgon National Park, climbing from about 2050 meters above sea level to about 2,675 meters and back down to where we started. We spent the night at (partly in) Tatum (tah-TOOM) Cave at the 2,675-meter level. Of necessity our pace was faster than ideal for birding, but I did see some good ones along the way, viz.:

* Brown woodland warbler (Phylloscopus umbrovirens) -- a first for me

* Grey cuckoo-shrike (Coracina caesia)

* Hartlaub's turaco (Tauraco hartlaubi) -- first time to meet these in Uganda; have seen them several times in Kenya

* Olive pigeon (Columba arquatrix)

* White-tailed crested flycatcher (Elminia albonotata)

* African blue flycatcher (Elminia longicauda)

* Mountain buzzard (Buteo oreophilus)

* Ayres' hawk eagle (Hieraaetus ayresii)

* White-starred robin (Pogonocichla stellata) -- first time to see this in Uganda; a familiar species from Malawi years

* Olive thrush (Turdus olivaceus) -- first time to see this in Uganda; common in Kenya highlands

* Black-throated apalis (Apalis jacksoni)

We also saw a few blue monkeys and heard baboons and black-and-white colobus monkeys as we walked through the montane forest.

Recently noted

Several species of interest that I've spotted here and there in the past week or two:

Red-necked falcon (Falco chicquera) -- checked the borassus palm where we have been seeing one of these for the past several weeks and found it perched there again

Abyssinian roller (Coracias abyssinica) -- saw a few of these in passing while traveling in the vicinity of Soroti town

Namaqua dove (Oena capensis) -- had one fly by over wet grassland near Awoja on our way to Soroti

Giant (Verreaux's) eagle owl (Bubo lacteus) -- saw one carrying prey early the other morning, and have been hearing them more often lately than we did for a while

Black-and-white-casqued hornbill (Bycanistes subcylindricus) -- heard one of these large fellows while out running early a couple of mornings ago

African little sparrowhawk (Accipiter minullus) -- another one (second in a month) flying over

Tropical boubou (Laniarius aethiopicus) -- haven't actually seen one recently, but have been hearing them often calling (often duetting) from inside thickets in our neighborhood

Harlequin quail (Coturnix delegorguei) -- came across a female dead on the road, probably struck by a car while migrating in the night